As a microbiologist, mom, and science communicator I am THRILLED that so many books are beginning to be written and published on beneficial microbes and microbiomes, especially human gut microbiomes. Microbes are essential to our health and the health of our planet.
An open letter to Beyoncé wishing her and her family well as the twins meet their microbial partners for life. Dear Beyoncé, As you wait and prepare for the twins’ birth please don’t forget the invisible microbes that will protect, feed, and teach your babies for the rest of their lives. Yep, I’m talking about “germs” or more politically correctly – “microbes”. Babies are “microbe magnets”. Those first microbes that baby encounters become their microbes for life. They are stuck together – life partners in sickness and in health. What’s cool is that these microbes are security guards keeping away diseases, chefs chopping up food to feed baby, and soothing Jedi masters who teach baby’s immune system what to kill and what to ignore. In my grandmother’s day, people in developed countries died from communicable diseases – polio, mumps, measles, yellow fever. Diseases that are spread from person to person by sneezing, coughing, or spread by insects, like mosquitos. Today people die from non-communicable diseases – diabetes, allergies, asthma, autoimmune diseases, and more. Our diseases today aren’t due to specific microbial pathogens. Vaccines, handwashing, clean water, sewers, and antibiotics keep these easy-to-spread microbial diseases at low numbers. Instead, today’s diseases
Our Little Hidden Helpers What do the human gut and plant roots have in common? Interactions with helpful microorganisms. How do both influence human health? Interactions with helpful microorganisms. In The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health by David R. Montgomery and Anne Biklé weave a fascinating story of their journey understanding the importance of microbes in agricultural and human health. Hidden Half weaves together stories of science and society, data and personalities to explore how manufactured diets – whether chemical fertilizers for agriculture or high-fat, high-sugar, low fiber diets for people – have damaged our health.The authors use excellent examples and analogies to deliver the science to a general audience.
The Good Gut: Taking Control of Your Weight, Your Mood, and Your Long-term Health Just as health food shelves are brimming with a myriad of probiotics, so are the bookstore shelves overflowing with books on the microbiome and diet. The Good Gut by microbiome research scientists, Justin and Erica Sonnenburg, stands head and shoulders above the rest providing an evidence-based approach to healthy eating and a microbiome friendly diet. Using interesting personal stories and great metaphors, the Sonnenburgs engage readers with their clear explanations of the quickly developing field of how the microbiome influences human health. Covering all the relevant topics, from what the microbiome is, to how it is first acquired, how it changes with age, diet, illness, and antibiotics, The Good Gut gives its readers a solid, but realistic foundation in the science of the microbiome. Throughout the book, Erica and Justin interweave the history of humans as a species and a society, and the history of medicine and science. They share stories of how our Western lifestyle may be destroying our natural biodiversity in and on ourselves. I enjoy that they talk about humans as just a giant tube of bacteria, but then again, I’m an advocate
Changes in poop quantity, quality, and color is a concern to gut microbiome scientists and parents alike. In Science of Mom’s recent post “How Often Should a Baby Poop?” she discusses the amazing variability in pooping patterns between babies and also as a kid ages. I was, of course, excited to see that she mentioned a little about the influence of the gut microbiome, but her post inspired me to think more about pooping patterns from a microbiome perspective. Individual variability First, it’s not too surprising that there’s a huge variability between infants and pooping frequency. Several studies demonstrate that each individual’s gut microbiome is unique. In the guts of healthy adults, a single, unique bacterial strain can be used to identify each individual [1]. With each bacterial strain comes some unique abilities. Various bacterial taxa digest different foods and/or produce and transport different vitamins, amino acids, and other basic nutrients. So microbiome community A may process the nutrients faster, more efficiently, or completely than microbiome community B. That difference in the microbiome community function plus the differences in human gut anatomy due to human genetics could lead to a wide range in pooping frequency. Feeding differences Second, as Science